Richard Branson is suing the NHS because it doesn’t want to work with VirginCare

“Virgin Care is concerned that there may have been serious flaws in the procurement process. Never before have we been so concerned with the whole process that we have needed to make a challenge of this nature.”

The problem with letting Private Practise in to the NHS is that, like a cancer, it lodges in then attacks the host. Private for-profit companies are being awarded billions of pounds worth of contracts to run NHS services. The Government is breaking-up and selling off our NHS contract by contract. Experts estimate that over 70% of tenders for NHS services are being awarded to for-profit companies. No politician ever asked for our permission to dismantle our NHS. Due to the demographic shift in the UK & wider Western World, the provision of community services, old age & mental healthcare is one of the biggest growth areas for healthcare companies and accounts for about half of all NHS outsourcing.

According to LaingBuisson, private healthcare industry analysts,

“the market for out-of-hospital services could be worth £10bn-£20bn a year. Virgin has become one of the biggest players, with more than 400 NHS contracts.”

To make matters worse many for-profit companies like VirginCare are “passing off” their services as NHS. Many for-profit contractors use the NHS logo and don’t openly present the fact that they are private companies. Many of the buildings from which for-profit companies operate display only the NHS logo. We believe that this is intentionally misleading.

Virgin Care are misleading people across the UK. NHS services across the UK are run by for-profit company Virgin Care – only the NHS logo is used outside the building where services are delivered.

Our MPs should publicly demand that the Government amend NHS guidelines to make it clear those for-profit companies are not allowed to use the NHS logo. Our MPs should support calls for private companies which refuse to stop using our NHS logo, have their contracts terminated. Our MPs should support calls that Virgin Care stops “passing off” their services as NHS.

Department of Health accounts show that the private sector claims £8.7bn of NHS services for 2015-16, or about 7.6 per cent of the total NHS budget. These figures exclude general practice, dentistry and community pharmacy, which are often delivered by the private sector, too.